Impact of Sand Dredging Activities on Ecosystem and Community Survival in Ibeshe Area of Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of sand dredging activities on coastal ecosystem and community survival around Ibeshe area of the Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria. Surface water and bottom sediment samples were collected from locations partitioned into Dredged Area (DA) and Undredged Area (UA) in the lagoon for laboratory analyses. Questionnaires were administered to community dwellers and sand miners to further analyze perception of locals. Significant differences in water quality parameters and sediments properties from Dredged and Undredged areas, and highly significant relationship between sand dredging and unsustainable ecological practices in Ibeshe were observed. One way ANOVA test indicates that all water quality parameters measured with exception of turbidity and nitrate concentration were not significantly different (P > 0.05) between Dredged and Undredged area. With exception of moisture content other sediment parameters measured were not significantly different (P > 0.05) between Dredged and Undredged areas. The project also determined the impact of dredging activities on the fisheries and fishing business in the environment. Turbidity values revealed that fishes will be negatively affected due to dredging activities; moreover dwellers pay little or no attention to conservation of the area due to unawareness. Sand dredging operations negatively influence ecological resources and water composition of the area. This project is designed to randomly sample the opinion of sand mining operators and residents; and questionnaires were administered to obtain data. Strict regulation and enforcement will assist to control ecological destruction and solve problems facing the lagoon environment.

Anthropogenic influence on water quality and phytoplankton diversity of upper Ganga basin: A case study of Ganga River and its major tributaries

“…Unscientific methods for sand mining, construction of Dam, and barrages have been revealed to cause potential negative environmental impacts on aquatic ecosystem and mainly causes major potential threats to freshwater biota (Adekunbi et al., 2018; Sharma et al., 2018).…”

“…(Chang, 2008). Nutrient dynamics also play an important role in the distribution, abundance, richness, quantitative, and qualitative composition of phytoplankton (Malik et al, 2020a(Malik et al, ,2020b.Unscientific methods for sand mining, construction of Dam, and barrages have been revealed to cause potential negative environmental impacts on aquatic ecosystem and mainly causes major potential threats to freshwater biota (Adekunbi et al, 2018;.The present study was carried out in order to assess the water quality status and phytoplankton diversity of the upper Ganga basin using various enviro-technique in order to evaluate the influences of anthropogenic activities, construction of Dam and barrages on water quality and its appropriateness to support freshwater biodiversity.quality and phytoplankton diversity. Still, these kinds of activities to be checked regularly and can be controlled.…”

Spatial distribution of benthic foraminifera in the Lagos Lagoon (Nigeria): Tracing the impact of environmental perturbations

“…uncontrolled chemicals used by local fisherman, ineffective sewerage systems, industrial discharges, heavy metal pollution, wood residue leachates, and sand dredging activities [1,56,[59][60][61][62] and pose a serious threat to biodiversity and the aquatic ecosystem.…”

“…spatial variation, and iii.) concentrations via bioaccumulation that exceed toxicity levels with considerable risks to aquatic systems and biotas [11,55,59,63,64].…”

Waterbody status of upper Ganga basin and its major tributaries using enviro‐assessment techniques

“…Inappropriate methods for sand mining have been described as causing harmful ecological effects on aquatic ecosystems. Akankali et al (2017), Adekunbi et al (2018).…”